REI Co-op in Action

Introduction

Originally set for a March 2022 launch, this project began as a collaboration between Membership Acquisition (MAQ) and Membership Engagement (ME) teams. However, an unexpected internal restructuring led to the layoff of our ME counterparts, transferring their responsibilities to our team—now halved in size. Despite these challenges, the project successfully launched only a month behind schedule in April 2022. This case study highlights how we navigated transitions, overcame hurdles, and delivered results.

Challenges

Every year, members lapse due to:

Lack of understanding, awareness and connection to their membership
Not realizing the full breadth of their benefits and what we do with the money collected from the membership
Misunderstanding that membership is like a subscription or that it is a recurring fee

Ideation & hypothesis

To build a deeper emotional connection with customers, we focused on a broader narrative—something “bigger than the individual.” Our hypothesis: showcasing the collective impact of the co-op and personalized highlights (like yearly rewards earned) would help customers better appreciate the value of membership and feel inspired to engage with us.

We aimed to create content that felt familiar and exciting, drawing inspiration from year-end recaps like Spotify Wrapped. By surfacing engaging, data-driven insights—both personal and community-wide—we believed this approach would increase engagement and drive new member sign-ups.

Spotify Wrapped is a great example of a “Signature Moment”: a standout interaction within a customer journey that leaves a lasting, memorable impact on the person who experiences it.

Member Acquisition and Member Engagement teams heavily relied on each other for brainstorming, collaboration and knowledge sharing in two different but related areas of the co-op’s membership initiative.

Picture this: As you open the website for your next gear purchase, you’re met with a personalized celebration once a year recapping membership!

Facing setbacks

In February, layoffs reduced our team by 50%, and we lost valuable team members, including my design counterpart on the ME team. As we adapted, another challenge arose: key data points needed for launch were delayed until April. After multiple revisions, we were finally able to launch an A/B test in April, focusing on the MVP version of the Membership LP hero carousel.

A/B test launch

A carousel highlighting REI’s impact through personalized stats, aiming to reinforce the co-op’s value.

Test: Carousel showing meaningful membership stats

Stats used

$XX Personalized rewards
$223M in Member Rewards
96K Traded-in Gear Items
$5.4m Donated to the REI Cooperative Action Fund
1.28m New Members

We tested slightly different versions of the same experience across different cohorts, including signed out/unknown customers, signed in non-members and signed in members.

Additionally, member audiences saw their personalized rewards amount for the year (which is distributed in March of every year).

Results

Testing personalized content in this area yielded positive outcomes, including increased rewards redemption, member acquisition, and a substantial revenue contribution. Significant non-member orders during this time period also suggested effectiveness as a differentiator and may have impacted the mindset of customers while considering competitors.

Positive performance: successful month-long run
Increased Rewards Redemption & Member Acquisition
Membership Conversion Revenue Contribution: $97k

Making use of the hero area, carousel cycles through several data points tying our co-op’s business impact to our members, customers, and community.

Ongoing iteration

Post-launch, my content design partner and I focused on refining “membership box” for different user types (members, non-members, signed-out customers). By continually advocating for a test to streamline the CTAs and clarify the pricing message, the test went live in September 2023.

Optimizations I sought to test into and eventually implement.

The “membership box” has 3 versions, meant for different audiences:

signed in members
signed in non-members
signed out customers/unknown

Goal: streamline & shorten CTAs, move the price to the header for enhanced clarity, and focus on straightforward copy.

PM stakeholders initially hesitated to continue testing in this area. This reluctance stemmed from the recent successful efforts towards the carousel hero and the favorable results of previous tests with longer CTAs. There was questions regarding value of the effort, but we persisted throughout the year, consistently advocating for this test. Finally, we got buy in and the test date was set.

Hypothesis & goals

The goal of this second A/B test was simple:

Increase membership acquisition
or at least maintain the same acquisition rates while simplifying the user experience

Our hypothesis was that by emphasizing key messages like "one-time cost" and "lifetime membership," we could clarify the value proposition and improve membership conversions. Many customers are unaware that an REI membership is a one-time payment of $30, so our aim was to reinforce this messaging in the headline and body copy.

We also sought to streamline the CTAs by simplifying the "Add to Cart" and "Buy Now" buttons. Success would be measured by either: A) Increased acquisition rates, or B) Acquisition rates remaining flat, which would still be a win due to the enhanced UX and clarity of the messaging.

The primary goal was to simplify the experience without negatively impacting conversions, focusing on clarity in the lifetime membership offer and reducing unnecessary complexity in the CTA buttons.

A/B testing again

The test ran for two weeks in September 2023, with refined copy and CTAs. Results indicated a significant improvement across all metrics of interest. The simplified experience is expected to add an estimated 2,900 additional memberships over the next year. Despite encountering initial resistance from stakeholders on my team, a subsequent test proved successful by emphasizing "one-time" and "lifetime" messaging and ultimately simplifying the user experience for customers.

✅ Membership Conversion Rate: +4.22% over control

✅ Order Conversion rate: +1.28% over control

✅ Membership Removal Rate: -16.88% vs control